RTI penalties

Newsletter issue - July 2015.

Employers are supposed to be warned in advance that a penalty for a late PAYE report is due. The HMRC computer system should send an electronic notice through the PAYE online system, but in some cases those electronic notices have not arrived. If you have received a late filing penalty for PAYE we need to check if any of the following conditions apply:

Three-day grace period

In February 2015 HMRC announced that full payment submission (FPS) reports could be submitted up to three days after the day on which the employees were paid. This change was supposed to apply retrospectively for the whole of 2014/15, but in some cases that three-day grace period has been ignored and a penalty has been issued.

Wrong penalty period

Late filing penalties are not due for employers with less than 50 employees for months 1 to 11 in 2014/15. So if you have less than 50 employees and you have received a late filing penalty for a month other than month 12 in 2014/15, it's wrong. Similarly, an employer with 50 or more employees should not receive a late filing penalty for periods before 6 October 2014.

One late submission

Employers with 50 or more employees were permitted to make one late real time information (RTI) submission in 2014/15 without incurring a penalty, so if there has been only one late return (which was over three days late), there should be no penalty.

All incorrect penalties need to be appealed as soon as possible using the online penalties and appeals service (PAS), which is available through HMRC's PAYE online system. We can do that for you, but we will need the unique ID code on the penalty notice to submit the appeal.

You don't have to pay the penalty while any appeal against it is under consideration. Of course, if the penalty is cancelled on appeal it doesn't have to be paid at all.